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Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Love List: Meditation Edition

This week's love list is all about meditation, happiness and peace. What can be wrong with that?? Please feel free to share your favorite books, podcasts, articles, sites and studies on the subjects in the comments!

1. Headspace is a newer app billed as a personal trainer for your mind. The goal is to help you apply mindfulness to your everyday activities through a collection of meditation sessions. You can start for free with the Take 10 program and move up from there if you wish. It's available in apps for iOS and Android as well as on your computer. (Headspace)

2. Dan Harris' 10% Happier (How I Tamed the Voice In My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works--A True Story) is making me look at meditation in a new way. I've been working towards a regular meditation practice for a while but have found some of the thought leaders in the area a little too hard to understand at times. If you've ever seen Oprah interview Deepak Chopra, you will know she has moments where she says something to the effect of "Wait. Now, what? That one was waaaaaaay deep. Can you explain it again?" That's what I mean. Harris takes the "deep" (or convoluted) language away and just tells his story (at least so far--I still have a couple of chapters to go) and the benefits he's experienced from meditation. If you want to hear some of his story before committing to the book, check out his talk at Google here. (Amazon)

3. Gretchen Rubin is a best selling author and one of the women inspiring me to pursue my bliss despite how hard I worked for my law degree. Rubin graduated from law school, became a lawyer and landed one of the most prestigious positions in the field--clerking for Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor. Then, she realized she wanted to be a writer. She pursued her dream and went on to have three HUGE best sellers (Better Than Before, The Happiness Project and Happier at Home). This year, she launched Happier, a podcast with her sister, Elizabeth Craft, about happiness. You can listen to the podcast here. The episodes are fairly short and there have only been 15 episodes so you can catch up pretty quickly. (Gretchen Rubin)

4. People who meditate often talk about the brain's link to the body. Now there is actual science linking the brain to the immune system. Read a summary here and a more in-depth explanation of new discoveries here. (Greatist/UVA Today)

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hello, my name is nicole!
Nicole’s Curated Life started with a major shift in my life. Over time, it has become a place to share my journey to a life well lived. Whether through inspirational quotes, recipes, music or fitness and beauty tips, the goal is always to encourage my readers to embrace everything in their stories and use what they’ve collected (tangible and intangible) as tools for living a fulfilled life.